Characters do what they do because of their various motivations and desires. Often, their desires conflict with their ethical or moral responsibilities. For example, a personal belief, a love, a thirst for vengeance, a resolve to rectify a wrong, or some other ambition may cause a character to conflict with a moral obligation. Write about a literary work in which a character’s motivations/desire

Directions:
Choose TWO stories from Module Fourteen.
The journal should be typed following proper MLA format–>MLA Journal format Download MLA Journal format.
Your title should be the same as the assignment. Example: Literary Response Journal #1-The Vernacular Tradition
The journal entry should be a minimum of 2 paragraphs with a minimum of 300 words.
Choose TWO topics from the Literary Response Journal Topics page.
The first paragraph should be about Topic #1 and your first story, and the second paragraph should be about Topic #2. and a different story
Do not bullet your answers.
Include the literary work’s TAG (title-properly punctuated/author/genre).
Use specific references to the literary work but NO DIRECT QUOTES.
Answer with careful thought and insight.
Watch your grammar, spelling, mechanics, and punctuation.
Use your own thoughts about the work. Remember, you are submitting your journal to Turnitin.com. It will catch plagiarism which will result in a zero for your assignment.

Literary Response Journal Topics
What We’re Getting Wrong About So-Called Internet Literature ‹ Literary HubYour Literary Response Journal should convince me that you have read and thought carefully about each assigned literary work. If your understanding of the work is “wrong,” yet your journal clearly proves that you read (or misread) the work, you may well receive full credit. Your grade is based on content – what you have to say, how well you say it, your thoughts and feelings about the literature, and your explanation of the logic that led to your interpretation. Your grade is also based on following directions. Remember, you are NOT writing a summary. I will not penalize you for grammar and usage errors –but to receive credit, you MUST include the following in every LRJ:

proper MLA Format–>MLA Journal format-1.pdf Download MLA Journal format-1.pdf
the literary work’s title properly punctuated
the writer’s name
specific references to the literary work but NO DIRECT QUOTES
careful thought
After you’ve included the five MUSTs above, you may choose TWO of the following topics to guide your response. You may even choose the same one every time. Consider the possibilities:

Topic One: Characters do what they do because of their various motivations and desires. Often, their desires conflict with their ethical or moral responsibilities. For example, a personal belief, a love, a thirst for vengeance, a resolve to rectify a wrong, or some other ambition may cause a character to conflict with a moral obligation. Write about a literary work in which a character’s motivations/desire conflict with his/her ethical responsibilities. Remember that you are analyzing the literary text–not commenting on whether or not the behaviors are ethical or “right” in your opinion. Instead, you should focus on the moral dilemma the character experiences and analyze how he/she wrestles with this dilemma beyond what is obvious in the plot. What literary elements draw out this conflict?

Topic Two: Most often, literary works have both internal conflict (individual v. self) and external conflict (individual v. individual, society, nature, or technology). Additionally, one can often find that a character’s internal conflict is linked to an external one. Choose a text in which both an internal and external conflict are evident to you. How does the external conflict illuminate the internal one? What meaningful parallels or incongruencies do you observe when comparing the two, and what is the significance within the context of the story?

Topic Three: In some stories, characters come into conflict with the culture in which they live. Often, a character feels alienated in his/her community or society due to race, gender, class, or ethnic background. Choose a text that shows this kind of conflict. How is the character alienated from the community and how does she/he respond to it? What does that character’s alienation say about the surrounding society’s assumptions, morality, and values? In what way(s) do literary elements reflect how that society defines race, gender, class, and/or ethnicity? How does this create conflict for the character?

Topic Four: One of the most revealing types of conflict occurs when a character’s inner struggles are resolved at a great personal price. Often, the character learns a lesson, but too late to help himself/herself or another character. Explain how, in the work that you read, a character struggles but fails to learn a lesson in time, and thus, serves as an example for the reader. In your journal, focus on the conflict within the character. Be sure to include the price paid as part of the resolution and the lesson to be learned.

Topic Five: Often in literary works, authors choose a physical object which takes on a special significance in the work and becomes a symbol of something beyond itself. Show how, in the work that you read, the author uses a symbol to convey an important meaning. In your journal, focus on the symbol and what it symbolizes. Be sure to discuss how the author uses it to convey a message to readers. You may choose three important symbols from the work, or you may choose to elaborate on one symbol in both paragraphs.

Topic Six: Authors often use descriptive details to develop a setting for several purposes. In a journal, explain how the setting of your book related to events from the plot, related to characters, or built suspense. You may write one body paragraph about each aspect of the setting, or you may choose to elaborate on one particular aspect (plot, character, suspense) in both paragraphs.

Topic Seven: What is the theme of the work? State the theme of the work. Explain how the theme is developed. Give specific examples of scenes from the work in which the author developed the theme.

Topic Eight: Discuss the author’s use of figurative language. Identify three examples of figurative language from the work. Why did the author use these examples? What impact does the figurative language have on characterization, description of the setting, mood, foreshadowing, theme, or the work overall? Be sure to explain the significance of each use of figurative language.

Topic Nine: Setting is an important component of any story. Consider the role that setting has in one of the works. How is this particular setting integral to the story? Does the protagonist conflict with the setting or have particular interactions with it? How does the protagonist’s relationship with the setting connect with his/her development as a character?

Topic Ten: Often in literature, character relationships change and evolve. From the literary works you have read, choose one in which a character’s feelings toward another character change. Explain how the character’s feelings changed, why the feelings changed, and how this change affects the work as a whole. Include specific examples from the work of literature you have chosen to support your points.

Topic Eleven: Evaluate the moral structure of the protagonist. To what degree is her/his moral stature defined by contrasting minor characters, by the testimony of characters who are readily acceptable as witnesses? Discuss the protagonist’s inclinations to specific virtues and vices, her/his powers or handicaps with relation to those virtues and vices. Discuss one or two important actions in which her/his moral stature is apparent. In view of all the matters above, what does the author apparently wish us to think and feel about what happens to the protagonist?

Topic Twelve: Describe the psychology of the protagonist. What are her/his dominant traits or desires? How did these traits or desires apparently originate? Do they support or oppose one another? Explain. Through what modes of awareness is the protagonist most responsive to life and experience: rational, instinctual, sensory, emotional, intuitive? Explain and illustrate. Discuss the way in which the protagonist takes hold of an emergency. In what terms does she/he see her/his problem? What does she/he maximize or minimize, try to prove or disprove? Do her/his reactions proceed through definite phases? If so, what are they? How may one explain the protagonist’s effectiveness or inadequacy in taking hold of this emergency?

Topic Thirteen: What is the point of reading a work that is “old” (Oedipus Rex is 2400 years old, for example, and Hamlet is 400 years old, and A Doll’s House is 100 years old). Do “old” works have anything of value to say to us today or is reading them simply like keeping them stored in a museum for us to visit occasionally? Are the concerns in “old” works relevant only to the times in which they were written, or do they remain relevant to us today? Should works deal with “universal” issues and problems? Or should they concern themselves primarily with issues and problems that are unique to the times in which they are written? What makes a work “relevant” or “out of date”? Use specific examples from one of the texts to support your answers.

Topic Fourteen: Is there a major confrontation in the work? If so, what sort of confrontation is it? Who or what is involved? Does the confrontation lead to any recognition or change in awareness on the protagonist’s part, either about herself/himself or about the world she/he inhabits? Is the action in the work “realistic”? That is, does the work portray something one might have a fair chance of encountering in “real life”? If so, explain how the action(s) reflect the major intellectual concerns of the work. If not, discuss the effect upon the reader of the work’s deliberately unrealistic content.

Topic Fifteen: Tone is a literary element that poets and authors use to affect a certain mood, emotion, setting, and/or message. Choose a story, drama, or poem in which you observe a unique tone. Analyze the tone in detail, illustrating specific qualities of it by offering several textual examples of each quality. Why is this tone important in understanding the conflict and theme of the text? How does it contribute to both?

Topic Sixteen: Discuss the title of the story. What is the significance of the title? Is the title allegorical, ironic, or symbolic? Cite specific evidence from the text in your answer.